“I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations — environmental organizations working against shale gas — to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas,” said Rasmussen, the former Prime Minister of Denmark.

Rasmussen's comments were relayed to the press by someone in attendance who apparently broke the “Chatham House Rule” by telling outsiders about the content of a Chatham House meeting.

But Rasmussen left out some key context from his presentation, which he said “is my interpretation” and did not further elaborate on his “disinformation operations” comments.

That is, while powerful actors have claimed on multiple occasions that western-based anti-fracking activists are funded by the Kremlin, no one has ever documented such a relationship in the form of a money paper trail.

Following his bizarre trip to Copenhagen, Inhofe penned an op-ed in USA Today earlier this week arguing that “The bottom line is this: The American people have caught on to the significant flaws of cap-and-trade policy,” and citing a Washington Postpoll which he alleged proved his point that “the American public is growing restless with policies that would put more Americans out of jobs and raise the cost of energy.”

But Kleefeld takes issue with Inhofe’s interpretation of the poll. “The problem is this: The poll doesn’t say that people are against policies that would raise the cost of energy – in fact, it says quite the opposite,” he writes.

It was just revealed that so-called climate changeactuallyisa hoax, perpetrated by that fiend Al Gore.

Numerous luminaries in the scientific community owned up with their own mea culpas when the gigantic ruse was revealed on this day, April 1, 2009.

With the exception of a few visionaries, virtually every scientist on Earth was taken in by the former Vice President’s compelling power point presentation. The humiliation was palpable.

“I am deeply ashamed for having unwittingly perpetuated such a massive fraud on the governments of the world,” said Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC, calling the grand climate hoax a “cunning deception spanning decades”.

“I have to admit, Al got me good,” said NASA’s Dr. James Hansen as he packed up his personal belongings at his office at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. “Despite my decades of experience in climate modeling and satellite meteorology, I would just get mesmerized whenever Gore started showing me all those fancy charts and tables. The man is a real Svengali.”

Just when you think, maybe, just maybe the Republican Party is beginning to pop its head out of the sand and recognize what scientists all over the world are saying about the realities of global warming, you get Republican “strategist” and former President Bush Assistant, Mary Matalin, saying this on CNN:

… global warming is a largely unscientific hoax. And it's a political concoction.”

Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.

There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.